When
it comes to Protestant hymns, it’s hard to do better than the Wesley boys. Charles
Wesley wrote some of the most stirring worship songs around, which were put to
use in the early Methodist church days (which brother John founded with him and George Whitefield), when preachers needed to rouse the
congregants to fervent worship. Wesley’s opus numbers in the thousands; today we’re having one for
Advent, “Come Thou, Long Expected Jesus”.
This
one has been set to several melodies; I’ll give you two versions. First up, the
one set to the tune Stuttgart, written by a contemporary of Wesley’s, Christian
Witt (sadly, after a long trawl through YouTube, this was the best example I could find; where are the Methodist choirs ready to belt this one out?):
I’ve also heard it set to the Welsh tune “Hyfrydol”:
Each
has its fine points; each does the text proud.
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